Reply to Where could you live comfortably on 80k a year?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There are many, many places in the US where they could live comfortably on $80k, especially since they have health insurance.  Can you provide some guidance on a particular geographic or climate preference so I can narrow down suggestions?[/quote]

Right now there is no climate/geographic preference. They want to cast a wide net.

I do think they will be happier in a city of some kind, even if it's small.[b] I could see them living in Boise or Mobile or Providence. [/b]I cannot imagine them living in a small town unless it was basically in the suburbs/exurbs of a larger city.[/quote]

Housing is not cheap in Boise, Idaho or in Providence. Mobile, Alabama is an interesting thought.[/quote]

They don't need ultra-cheap housing -- they can afford to pay around 2k/mo in rent. That won't work in NYC but you can find places like that in Boise and Providence. Just poking around on Zillow, Boise has a ton of updated 2-bedroom apartments in that price range, with washers and driers and other amenities. Providence is slimmer pickings (owing partly to older housing stock which might make a lot of the apartments inappropriate for retirees, though it may also be a terrible time of year to find housing in Providence since most places vacated by graduating students have likely already been filled for fall already -- I'd try to look either outside the college housing cycle (winter, early spring) or jump in early on that cycle in May or early June).

Mobile is dirt cheap -- it's hard to find a 2 bedroom for MORE than 2k there, and you have tons of nice options in the 1300-1500 range. It may honestly be too cheap for this situation where the couple has 80k to spend on living expenses and no reason to spend LESS than that. Mobile might not allow them to maximize that income, frankly. Might be worth it to spend more to live in a place where your extra rent money also gets you access to more cultural events, a livelier restaurant scene, proximity to a bigger airport or other cities for weekend getaways, etc. Providence in particular would offer a lot of bang for its buck because of all the many events and resources at the universities there -- you could go to art shows at RISD and plays at Brown, spend summer days at any of a number of beaches, go to NYC or Boston for the night, etc. Might be worth living in an older apartment with just one bathroom or shared laundry.[/quote]

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